“Sumak Kawsay” means to live in a harmonious relationship as human beings, with the territory and with all more than human entities. When we talk about peace, we need to talk about a peace in relation to all other beings, more than human, whose existence we have injured.
— Taita Hernando
This poignant message was delivered to our 1st year architecture by Taita Hernando Chindoy Chindoy a member of the delegation from the Inga Awai Population ATUN WASI IUIAI (AWAI) from the Colombian Andean Amazon in South America, hosted by the Spatial Practices Climate Forum. There were a series of talks, gatherings, and events throughout the week, including a trip to Epping Forest during which M-Arch students welcomed our Inga guests with reflective poems about the forest and their relationship with land, and later in the week, a film screening of documentaries by the Inga collective ÑAMBI RIMAI and Pedro Jajoy.
Spatial Radio, MA Narrative Environments and MA Cities produced a live broadcast of traditional music and words by the Inga Awai Population delegates, with a special selection of Andean South American music at the Spatial Practices Mixer.
We were introduced to the work of the Indigenous Pluriversity, by architect and lecturer Juliana Ramirez Rodriguez and Inga architect Musu Jacanamijoy, sharing the findings of the first stage of the Inga ancestral inhabitation mapping exercise that was carried out across regions in the Andean Amazon. A second stage was carried out in late November 2022. This initial mapping, supported by CSM, aims to safeguard the valuable knowledge across a fragmented Indigenous territory, threatened by environmental and cultural erosion, and to establish the parameters for the building of their Indigenous Pluriversity.
The second visit took place in February 2023, when Pedro Jajoy, architect and advisor for the Inga Indigenous community was part of the M-Arch Unit 2 Collaborative Unit entitled Weaving Vessels for Liminal Dialogues.
These are the first visits of a long-term collaboration. Climate Forum Spatial Practices at CSM will continue in dialogue and exchange with the Inga community for the construction and consolidation of their indigenous knowledge educational platforms.